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Martin McCarthy, for Pincombe, said the father-of-four had been an addict and had been unable to get work when released from prison and had succumbed to the temptation to make money dealing drugs.

Earlier Simon Davis, prosecuting, said that Pincombe was arrested in July, 2014 for an offence of aggravated vehicle taking and was involved in a crash and was jailed for six months.

Police recovered £1,000 in cash and a carrier bag which contained traces of cannabis and cocaine and from which Menzies fingerprints were recovered.

Mr Davis suggested this indicated the drug conspiracy had been in operation prior to November, 2014, the starting point of the indictment before the court.

Richard Menzies was jailed for over three years

He said there was contact between Pincombe and leading members of the Cannock-based crime group. "At the time Pincombe was in jail and was not released until January the following year which indicated that he was able to orchestrate events from his prison cell," said Mr Davis.

There was a delivery to the Swadlincote area in December 2014 and a second delivery in February 2015.

Pincombe had been in contact with the Cannock group leader John Appleton and courier, Carol Pope, who travelled to the Swadlincote area.

Later checks of Pope's phones showed addresses and post codes for Menzies and Pincombe and locations for meetings in the Burton and Swadlincote areas.

In June 2015 Menzies was arrested after police traced the movements of a Ford Focus by Brett Appleton - John Appleton's son - travelling from Cannock north on a road between Appleby Magna and Burton.

When the car was searched three kilos of mephedrone, also known as M-cat and worth £45,000, was found and one of the packages revealed Menzies' fingerprints, and there was further contact the next day between Pincombe and Appleton.

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Pincombe was arrested in June last year when a vacuum heat sealing machine was recovered.

At court Pope, 45, from Cannock, was jailed for seven years and two months. She was a courier for the kingpins of the drug gang, John Appleton and Michael O'Mahoney, both from Cannock, who were each jailed for 14 years.

In 2007 both men had been jailed for 10 years for running a similar network and the current operation started a short time after they were released on licence in 2012.

It was a complicated network of criminals and at the head were seasoned gang leaders who were aware of police tactics and did all they could to thwart it, the court was told.

Police used covert surveillance and vehicle tracing through ANPR and extensive analysis of dozens of mobile phones recovered from the defendants and were able to put forward a compelling case for which the defendants had to answer.

The ringleaders were "wholesale" dealers in high-purity cocaine to the other crime groups, which was later bulked out with other substances.

Undercover police followed the "foot soldiers" across the region delivering cocaine and mephedrone that regularly reached street values of £15,000 per delivery.

Details of the police operation given in court, which included arrests and a number of seizures of drugs and cash, was just a "snapshot" of the size of the drugs empire.

Confiscation hearings against all the defendants under the Proceeds of Crime Act are due to be heard in February next year.

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Inspector Pete Cooke, of Staffordshire Police's major and organised crime team, said: “These sentences reflect the commitment and hard work of officers. We're delighted to see offenders who have preyed on the vulnerable in our communities behind bars for a considerable period of time.

"All of them played a significant role in fuelling drug crime in south Staffordshire and elsewhere across the Midlands and South West and their sentences are very much welcomed.

"Staffordshire Police is committed to tackling drug crime in our communities and our work will continue under Operation Nemesis."

Those jailed were:

John Appleton, 46, of Locketts Court, Cannock, sentenced to 14 years; Michael O'Mahoney, 43, of Avenue Road, Cannock, sentenced to 14 years; Gary Peapell, 38, of Swindon, sentenced to eight years and eight months; Adam Farmer, 35, of Kineton Close, Redditch, sentenced to eight years and six months; Shane Andrews, 35, of John Donne Street, Stafford, sentenced to eight years; Gareth Pincombe, 38, of Repton Road, Swadlincote, sentenced to eight years and two months;Jason Bayley, 45, of Leamington Close, Cannock, sentenced to eight years; Carol Pope, 44, of Glover Street, Cannock, sentenced to seven years and two months; Darren Pearson, 46, of Moss Street, Cannock, sentenced to seven years and two months; Jamie Wilson, 38, of Sidney Avenue, Stafford, sentenced to six years and nine months;Keith Peapell, 62, Swindon, sentenced to six years; Russell Degg, 40, of Repton Close, Cannock, sentenced to six years; Scott Kenny, 32, of Mosedale, Rugby, sentenced to five years and four months; Lewis Chambers, 26, of Hillary Street, Walsall, sentenced to four years; Lucy Butler, 35, of Sanderling Close, Featherstone, sentenced to four years;Richard Menzies, 33, of Meadow View Road, Swadlincote, sentenced to three years and seven months; Jamie Sleigh, 37, of St John's Road, Cannock, sentenced to three years and seven months; David Perkins, 31, of Hindlip Close, Redditch, sentenced to three years and four months;Bret Appleton, 25, of Locketts Court, Cannock, sentenced to 20 months;Derek Hodgkiss, 56, of St John's Road, Cannock, received a 17-month suspended sentence Lee Higgins, 32, of Fownhope Close, Redditch, received an 11-month suspended sentence.

On December 13, 2016, Matthew Parsons, 34, of Lower Birches Way, Rugeley, was sentenced to a total of three years and six months for class A and class B supply.

On April 7, 2017, Kyle Wilson, 19, of Merrivale Road, Stafford, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class B drugs and was sentenced to 14 months' detention in a youth offenders' institution.